What is Actually Image SEO?

When you search for something on Google, you’re probably used to seeing a long list of Titles that navigate people to specific websites. But have you ever noticed the small thumbnail images that sometimes appear next to certain search results?

So, what do you need to achieve this? Optimize Images for SEO.

‍Image SEO is the process of optimizing an image or images on a website for search engine visibility. When your images are optimized, they are more likely to appear in the search results, and people are more likely to click on them. Image SEO aims to improve an image's ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs) and ultimately drive more traffic to a website.

Having an image on the web search results pages boosts the click-through rate, which brings us to the benefits of having optimized images for Google.

What are the Benefits of Optimized Images?

Adding optimized images can propel your business. This is especially true if you run an eCommerce store. Besides having an obvious visual appeal, optimized images have multifold benefits:

• They are a great way to generate traffic to your website. People who click on your images will be redirected to your website. This can help to increase your website’s traffic and improve your SEO.

• Optimized images also help you  rank higher in the search results. Google uses a number of factors when ranking images, including the title, file name, alt text, and the surrounding text. Optimizing these factors can improve your chances of appearing higher in the search results.

Nonetheless, that doesn’t mean you should overkill your website with too many images. More images don’t imply your business will rank higher on Google. Bear in mind that the images you add to your content must be valuable to both users and search engines.

If we talk about eCommerce, the value for the user would be to see your products, the highlighted product’s features, etc. For search engines, it means using a proper SEO strategy.

Let’s find out how to implement the proper SEO strategy and rank your images high on Google.

How to Rank in Google Image Search?

You can do a few things to optimize your images for Google and other search engines. Let’s what strategies you can apply to rank higher.

1. Use Descriptive Filenames for Your Images

First, make sure your images are named appropriately. Include keywords in the file name that describe the image. For example, if you have an image of a green smoothie, you might name the file "green-smoothie.jpg." 

2. Use Relevant Keywords in Your Image’s Alt Text

In addition to a descriptive file name, you'll also want to include alt text. Alt text is a short description of an image that is displayed if the image can't be shown for some reason. Search engines also use it to help index images. When writing alt text, be sure to include relevant keywords. 

3. Use Captions to Describe Your Images

And don’t forget captions. Did you know that people read captions four times more than the copy? To create a captivating caption, you should include the keyword and the information about the image content.

 4. Make Sure Your Website is Mobile-Friendly

Furthermore, make sure your images are hosted on a fast and reliable server. This will help ensure that your images load quickly and don't cause any problems for visitors to your site. Optimizing your images for mobile phones is of utmost importance since the majority of people use them for web browsing.

5. Promote Your Images on Social Media

Finally, in addition to optimizing your images for Google Images, you can also promote your images through social media, blogs, and other channels. Moreover, you must ensure they are high quality and relevant to your target audience. This can help drive traffic to your website and improve your SEO.

Furthermore, let’s see what requirements you should meet when we talk about the images themselves.

1. Use High-Quality, Keyword-Rich Images

When adding images to your website, be sure to use high-quality images relevant to your content. If you use platforms like Glorify, for example, you’ll have access to a template gallery with images that are already optimized for websites and other formats you might need.

In addition, include keywords in your image file names and tags to help Google index your images correctly.

2. Optimize Your Image File Sizes

Large image files can slow down your website, so optimizing your images for the web is important. Google suggests images smaller than 100KB. Most photo editing platforms like Tinypng, Kraken.io, JPEGmini, Optimizzila, etc. allow you to reduce the image file size without compromising the quality.

3. Choose the Right Image Format

Besides the size, you need to be careful which image format to use. Google accepts PEG,

PNG, MBP, GIF, WebP, SVG formats, and in-line images. However, it doesn’t accept TIFF or Raw. 

4. Add Image Sitemaps

An image sitemap represents an XML file containing information about the images on your website. 

How does it work? For Google to be able to grasp all the various content you have on your website, you should organize your content into a list. This list actually consists of all your URLs. The more Google can understand your list, the higher the chance it will crawl your pages higher.

For example, if you updated your product page and you have an image sitemap, Google will get a notification and will check your site more frequently. These frequent visits can lead to higher ranking.

What is also important is that Google doesn’t allow the size of a single sitemap to exceed 50 MB.  This might not sound like a lot, but it actually holds at least 50,0000 URLs.

By creating and submitting an image sitemap, you can help Google discover and index your images more quickly and efficiently.

5. Use Structured Data

It is a code that helps Google understand the content on your website. Structured data provides information about your images, and you should label each element of the image you put.

For example, if you sell shoes, you should label the size, type of footwear is it for men/women, etc. This way, you provided structured data, which increases the chance of your product page popping up in Google image search. 

Adding structured data to your images can help Google display your images in richer, more informative search results.  

Google Images can display information from three structured data types: videos, products, and recipes. What does it mean? It means that if your image is connected to one of these topics, it can rank better due to the structured data.

What we definitely shouldn’t forget to mention is that just having optimized images won’t do the work. Or, better said, the rank won’t be as high as when you combine optimized images with the optimized website.

On the other hand, image SEO is often put aside, which means the competition isn’t so fierce. As a result, it is easier to rank higher.

Now that we’ve covered the more technical part let’s see how you can easily optimize your images.

Optimize Your Images with Glorify

Although there are many design platforms out there, many have a steep learning curve or a hefty price tag. Some are more affordable than the others, or even free, but come with limited sets of features.

Glorify was created as a direct response. We wanted a platform that would be great for beginners, especially eCommerce store owners, a platform with many features and yet, simple to use.

So how can Glorify help you with image optimization?

Many people think you need to start from scratch, take photos on your own, or hire a professional photographer for optimized images. That isn’t true at all. You can choose any stock photo. 

What is good about Glorify is that you have all the images in one place in Glorify’s template library. 

You can choose website headers, product images, posters, social media templates, etc.

Template bundles

Another valuable perk when we speak about image optimization is that most images come in bundles.  What is the benefit of that? You don’t have to do the resizing manually and take care of all the nitty-gritty details.

Images of a certain size are an essential part of image optimization. You do want them in small resolution but not at the expense of quality.

That’s why having a bundles option is so important. Once you download the image you like, you immediately get the images optimized for all other social platforms.

Thus, not only do you get optimized images instantly, but you can repurpose them across social media channels in just a few clicks. And having your visual content shared and redistributed definitely helps rank high on Google.

Stand out with your images

Images should convey the story. They are the only way your visitors can “taste” your product. Thus, you want to make that experience positive. With Glorify, you can do just that. You will get images aligned with and optimized for your website, product page, social media platforms, etc. 

Wrapping It Up

One last tip: If you are still not convinced to optimize your images, remember that people usually do image searches prior to buying a product. It is their way of checking and testing the product. Make that experience positive for them by using quality images. The more professional and telling your images the higher chance of converting the visitors. 

There is more to Glorify than meets the eye. This small part only refers to image optimization. To fully explore Glorify’s features and see what other great perks are there, start your free trial now and create high-ranking and converting images.